How Afghanistan improved its health in 10 years despite bombs and bullets

After the fall of the Taliban in 2001 and as a country recovering from conflict, Afghanistan had some of the worst health indicators in the world. More than one-in-two (54%) children under five were stunted and around four-in-ten (39%) children were underweight in Afghanistan in 2004. It ranked 181/182 on the human development index, ranked the worst in stunting prevalence across the world and its under-five mortality was 257 per 1,000 live births.

In just 10 years, despite conflict and widespread poverty, Afghanistan made significant improvements in its health indicators: Under-five mortality reduced 29%, stunting declined from 54% in 2004 to 40% and underweight children declined from 39% to 20% in 2013.

Coverage of several maternal care interventions increased: Antenatal care–care during pregnancy–increased from 16% to 53%, births assisted by a skilled birth attendant from 14% to 46%, and births in a health facility from 13% to 39%. Childhood vaccinations doubled from 40% to 80% during this time.

The reduction in stunting has a lot to do with the health ministry’s focus on early breastfeeding and convergence of various ministries and aid agencies to achieve the goal, according to Homayoun Ludin, director of public nutrition, Ministry of Public Health.

Suicide bomber strikes Kabul's Shiite area; 7 killed, 22 injured

At least seven people were killed and 22 others injured in a suicide attack in western Kabul near where thousands of members of the Shia Hazara minority had gathered.

An Interior Ministry official told TOLO news that the explosion took place near the Mosalla-e-Mazar area in Police District 6.

Meanwhile, Afghan Public Health Ministry spokesman Wahidullah Majroh told EFE news that the toll could rise.

The gathering, which was attended by senior government officials, marked the death anniversary of Islamic Unity Party of Afghanistan's former leader Abdul Ali Mazari.

Far-right extremists preparing civil war on Islam in UK: Report

Far-right extremists are moving increasingly online as they prepare for what they believe is a "civil war on Islam" in Britain, according to a new report released today by a UK-based anti-racism group.
Hope Not Hate, a campaign group which investigates neo-Nazi groups to combat far-right extremism, warns that the UK must be prepared for more terrorist plots and use of extreme violence from the far-right for the foreseeable future.
"We are facing a surging threat from far-right terrorism and violent extremism.

We fear further violence from the extreme right in the months to come," saidNick Lowles, chief executive of Hope Not Hate.
"This rising terrorist threat is the consequence of the increasingly confrontational tone of online far-right rhetoric, combined with the almost universal extreme-right belief that a civil war between Islam and the West is coming," he added.

What killed the promise of Muslim communism?

For a brief moment after the Bolshevik uprisings of 1917, it looked like revolution might be waged across vast swaths of the world under the joint banner of Communism and Islam.

Pan-Islam had emerged in the final decades of the Ottoman Empire, with the efforts of Sultan Abdulhamid II to lay claim to the title of caliph among Muslims. New forms of Islamic schooling and associations began to emerge across the Arab world and beyond. From Egypt and Iraq to India and the Indonesian archipelago, Islam became a rallying call against European colonialism and imperialism.

Islam’s mobilizing power attracted Communist activists in the 1910s and 1920s. The Bolsheviks, who lacked organizational infrastructure in the vast Muslim lands of the former Russian empire, allied with Islamic reformers in those areas. They created a special Commissariat for Muslim Affairs under the Tatar Bolshevik Mirsaid Sultan-Galiev, promising to establish a distinctive “Muslim Communism” across the Caucasus and Central Asia. During the 1920 Congress of the Peoples of the East in Baku, in what is today Azerbaijan, the Comintern chairman Grigory Zinoviev, a Ukrainian Jew, called for waging a “holy war” against Western imperialism.

But as we now know, Communism and Islam failed to coalesce into a lasting alliance. By the onset of the Cold War, they seemed irrevocably opposed. Differing views about Communism divided Muslims across Asia, Africa and the Middle East in their struggles for independence and emancipation during the second half of the 20th century. An anti-Communist jihad fundamentally remade Afghanistan in the 1980s and helped set the stage for the rise of Al Qaeda and the emergence of a new form of Islamist terrorism.
READ MORE

To block extremism, China imposes restrictions on religious freedom

China has tightened regulations on religious freedom, intensifying punishments for unsanctioned activities and increasing its supervision of certain groups in a bid to "block extremism" and tackle what it sees as internal threats.

The updated rules, released by China's cabinet the State Council on Thursday, come as the country ratchets up already stringent controls on Muslim and Christian populations and include a ban on religious organisations accepting foreign donations.

China says it is facing a growing threat from domestic cults and radical Islam but critics have accused Beijing of a broader pattern of harassment, detention and abuse.

The latest measures focus on "maintaining legality, curbing illegality, blocking extremism, resisting infiltration and attacking crime", according to a copy of the regulations posted on the State Council's official website.

"Any organisation or individual may not use religion to carry out illegal activities such as endangering national security, undermining social order...And other activities that harm national interests," it said.

Among other changes, the regulations, which will be implemented February 2, extend previous rules to include online communications.
READ MORE

How Islamic State is luring women with false sense of 'empowerment': Report

The dreaded Islamic State terror group is luring foreign women recruits with a false sense of "empowerment", according to a new report by a UK think tank.

The report compiled by the Royal United Services Institute for Defence and Security Studies (RUSI) said the reasons that drove hundreds of women to journey from Europe to ISIS territories were "complex".

"We talked to women who hadn't been radicalised but could understand why some of these girls might have gone to Syria and Iraq so they could live as 'good Muslims'," said Emily Winterbotham, the report's co-author.

She said the use of the term "jihadi bride" to describe all female ISIS members was not truly representative.

"ISIS has been successful at selling that image to women. It's not just about the naive vulnerable jihadi bride, it's women saying: 'This is in line with my religion, my political beliefs, the fact I want to live how I want'," Winterbotham told 'The Independent'.

Possible draws were found to include "a rejection of Western feminism, online contact with recruiters who offer marriage and adventure, peer or family influence, adherence to ISIS ideology, naivety and romantic optimism, and the chance to be part of something new, exciting and illicit", she said.
READ MORE

Police arrest Christian man for alleged blasphemy case in Pakistan

A Christian man hailing from Kharian tehsil of Gujrat city has been arrested by the police on a blasphemy charge.

He was arrested on Friday and was moved to another place instead of the lock-up after rumours started to circulate that religious groups intended to attack the police station, reports the Dawn.

The complain was filed by one Nadeem Ahmed in Dinga town, who said that his friend Ishtiaq Ahmed Jalali had told him on Thursday that a sweeper working at a private hospital had allegedly uttered provocative remarks about the Holy Prophet.

Nadeem claimed that when he spoke to the sweeper to verify the allegation, the latter repeated the remarks.

The case against the suspect has been registered under Section 295-C (Use of derogatory remarks, etc, in respect of the Holy Prophet) of the Pakistan Penal Code.

Blasphemy law is very contentions in Pakistan with several lawmakers calling for its reform.

Meanwhile, Pakistan has also launched a crackdown blasphemous content on social media
READ MORE

Mosul is 'liberated', but the fight against IS and its ideology continues

After an offensive lasting nearly nine months, the Iraqi prime minister, Haider al-Abadi, walked through the streets of Mosul on July 9 after Iraqi forces backed by US-led coalition airstrikes “liberated” the city from so-called Islamic State (IS). Abadi was there to congratulate security forces for the victory.

Iraqis have been waiting for this moment for three years, since IS captured the country’s second city and other key areas in 2014.

Since the announcement of the recapture of Mosul’s iconic al-Nuri mosque, destroyed by IS in late June, social media has been buzzing with Arabic hashatags such as #thestateofmythhasfallen, #Mosulisbeingliberated, and #tweetforpeace.

The general reaction in Iraq and on social media to the recapture of Mosul has been one of joy and celebration, yet for many, the feelings are mixed. Although it is a huge blow for IS, the victory does not mean that IS has been defeated across Iraq. Battles are still awaiting in Tel Afar in the north-west, to Hawija and other areas in Anbar Province in western Iraq. And even when these are retaken, IS will continue its regional and global insurgency.

IS’s territorial caliphate is falling, but its ideology – which argues that its members follow the “true Islam”, fighting heretics and unbelievers – is not.

For Iraqis, smiles are mixed with tears, and optimism mixed with fears. Many thousands of lives have been lost and too much blood shed in the battle against IS. Many more thousands have been displaced and the destruction has been widespread. Iraqis rightfully ask whether all of this could have been avoided and whether those responsible will ever be held accountable. They are aware of the massive challenges ahead, politically, economically, and socially. These include the conflicting interests of the forces fighting on the ground, as well as those of countries such as Turkey, Iran, Saudi Arabia, and the US, whose interventions are often seen as destabilising to the Iraqi state.
READ MORE